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Summary of the impact

Climate change, and the need to feed 9-10 billion people by 2050, are two
of the greatest challenges facing humanity this century. Agriculture needs
to provide more food from less input, and with agriculture contributing
around a quarter of human greenhouse gas emissions, it needs to do so
while reducing its impact on the climate. Research in UoA6, led by Pete
Smith underpins (a) international climate policy choices to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and (b) development of a
greenhouse gas accounting software tool, The Cool Farm Tool. This is being
used in 18 countries around the world (including some of the largest
emitting countries) by a consortium of the world's leading agri-food
companies including e.g. Unilever, PepsiCo, Tesco, Heineken, Heinz,
McCain, Sysco, Ben & Jerry's, Costco, Yara and Marks & Spencer, to
reduce the climate impact of farming. These major companies control large
parts of the global food supply chain and have ambitious emission
reduction targets. Through both policy and industry channels, this work is
having a global impact on greenhouse gas emission reductions in
agriculture, by raising consciousness of emissions from agriculture, and
engaging farmers and producers in practices to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, thereby promoting climate friendly farming.

The specificimpacts on the environmentare:
(a) increased awareness of greenhouse gas emissions by producers,
reduced climate impact of farming for growers and suppliers, (b)
influence of policy debate on climate change and farming;impacts
on productionare that costs of production have been
reduced, andimpacts on commerceare: (a) the
adoption of new technology and (b) improvement in the environmental
performance of leading agri-food companies.

Underpinning research

The team, led by Professor Pete Smith at the University of
Aberdeen, has developed modelling and measurement-based methods to: (a)
assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture and forestry, and
(b) quantify the climate mitigation potential in agriculture globally. The
work, beginning in the 1990s and leading to a number of seminal
publications, culminated in the first all-GHG global assessment of
agricultural mitigation potential [1]. This paper formed the basis of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report
(AR4) chapter on agricultural GHG mitigation [3], for which Smith was
Convening Lead Author. The findings have been used by the IPCC, the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and by companies
(e.g. McKinsey & Co.) advising a number of international governments
on GHG reduction opportunities in agriculture. The science summarised in
this work is at the core of the software "Cool Farm Tool" used by leading
agri-food companies to make ambitious GHG reductions in their food supply
chains. This project is implemented by the Cool Farm Institute, (http://www.coolfarmtool.org/)
under the scientific guidance of Dr Jon Hillier and Smith.

The underpinning research on agricultural GHG emissions is described in
>200 journal papers (from 1996 to present) dealing with aspects of GHG
emissions and mitigation in agriculture. Professor Smith's team has world
leading expertise in modelling agricultural GHG emissions, attracting
>£7.8M of research funding to Aberdeen since 2003, which is part of the
reason Smith was chosen to lead these chapters for the IPCC 4th
(2007) and 5th (due 2014) Assessment Reports.

The work on soil carbon sequestration began in 1995, but only 21 of the
>220 journal papers on the topic were published before the author
joined the University of Aberdeen in 2001. The vast bulk of the
development occurred at the University of Aberdeen (>200 journal
papers), where the Cool Farm Tool was developed.

The team developing the science leading to the development of the Cool
Farm Tool are P. Smith (Professor of Soils & Global Change;
2001-present); Professor Jo U. Smith (Professor; 2013- present);
Hillier (Independent Research Fellow and main developer of the Cool Farm
Tool; 2005- present); plus 30+ PDRAs over the 10-year period.

Details of the impact

Process through which the research led to the impact: The papers
that formed the basis of the IPCC chapter on agricultural GHG mitigation
came to public prominence in 2007 with publication of the IPCC 4th
Assessment Report. As this was the first systematic, global, multi-gas
assessment of GHG mitigation potential in agriculture, it was quickly
seized upon by other global bodies (e.g. United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change: [a]) prompting significant impact onpublic policy, whereby guidelines were informed by the research
to set international and national GHG reduction targets, and identify cost
effective measures to meet these targets. Impacts on commerce have
also occurred through adoption of the research by companies providing
consultancy to a number of international governments (e.g. McKinsey &
Co. [b]), and agri-food businesses who are able to improve their
performance by reducing expensive inputs.

Impacts on the environment have been even more significant,
leading to reduced climate impact of farming for growers & suppliers
through changed management of the environmental risk presented by
GHG emissions. Smith was approached by Unilever, acting on behalf of a
number of global agri-food companies in 2009, to develop the science
described above into a practical software tool that could be used across
the world in a variety of food supply chains to help the companies meet
their ambitions to significantly reduce GHG emissions from agriculture
[c]. The first version of the tool was delivered in 2010, and has since
been used in 16 farming systems, in 18 countries sponsored by 18 agri-food
companies and NGOs (e.g. [c, d, e, g, h, I, j]). Some of the largest
agri-food companies (e.g. Unilever, PepsiCo, Tesco, Heinz, Sysco, and
Costco) sponsor this work, representing a significant proportion of global
agricultural food chains. A number of these companies have ambitious
emission reduction targets (e.g. PepsiCo aims to reduce emissions by 50%
in 5 years); these companies are now reducing GHG emissions by engaging
their producers in measures to reduce emissions, facilitated by the Cool
Farm Tool as described by the companies themselves in a number of case
studies (http://www.coolfarmtool.org/CaseStudies).

Contribution by the University of Aberdeen: The work described
above, culminating in the IPCC chapter, was underpinned by a sustained
body of research in Smith's team. The IPCC chapter is necessarily
co-authored from experts around the world, but Smith led the team that
conducted the assessment, and was lead author of the chapter and
underpinning papers (see section 2). The development of the software tool
was in collaboration with Unilever and the industry-funded Sustainable
Food Lab; Hillier and Smith led the scientific and technical aspects of
the development.

There are three levels of beneficiary: (1) policy makers who have
benefited from the science arising from the research to allow them to
design policy based on quantifiable outcomes and costs, (2) agri-food
businesses and farmers who, through the Cool Farm Tool, have access to
tools to help them reduce the environmental impact of their farming
operations, (3) society, which benefits from reduced climate change due to
reduced GHG emissions (which account for ~25% of human GHG emissions).

Claimed impact as defined by REF guidance:

Evidence of the extent of the impact described: 18 companies are
sponsoring the Cool Farm Institute which was set up to maximise global
access and use of the Cool Farm Tool to assess GHG emissions and devise
roadmaps for GHG emission reduction. The work is having real impact e.g.
the PepsiCo "50 in 5" target was introduced in 2010 and the Cool Farm Tool
is one of two tools supporting this programme. Emissions have been reduced
as a result. Progress toward its "50 in 5" targets is published in
PepsiCo's yearly sustainability updates, which are published and
independently assured by Deloitte LLP. Other examples include Unilever
which has embedded the Cool Farm Tool into its farmer and supplier
sustainable agriculture self-assessment platform, H.J. Heinz which chose
to focus on a key crop and a major growing region — California tomatoes
-where they source from approximately 270,000 acres annually, and Oxfam GB
which has used the Cool Farm Tool to examine the
effects of climate change on smallholder farmers in Guatemala producing
frozen vegetables for export. These and other case studies are described
at http://www.coolfarmtool.org/CaseStudies.
Impacts on the environment have already been significant through
quantified emission reductions on trial farms, and through engagement in
GHG emission reduction of previously unaware producers and farmers
supplying the global food companies listed, leading to a reduced
climate impact of farming for growers and suppliers.

Dates when impacts occurred: Society will ultimately benefit from
reduced GHG emissions from agriculture, but the benefits may not be felt
for some time since emission reduction has long-term, rather than
short-term, effects. In the meantime, many other beneficiaries have
already benefited from the impact described here. Policy makers and
shapers have already benefited from the science provided on GHG mitigation
potential in agriculture (e.g. UNFCCC 2008 position paper for climate
negotiations: [a]) leading to impact on public policy, whereby guidelines
have been informed by this research evidence. Similarly, agri-food
companies and farmers have already benefited through use of the Cool Farm
Tool to help reduce GHG emissions in their food supply chains which has
driven impacts on the environment through changed management
of the environmental risk presented by GHG emissions and impacts
on commerce by allowing agri-food companies to improve their
performance (both environmental and economic) by reducing inputs
[c].

[f] Testimonials from growers as users of the Cool Farm Tool
(e.g. "I do have to tell you, this Cool Farm Tool is really something,
I have mentioned it at numerous meetings, talking to different people
about where we go next and what's out there. I always get something out
of these things, many feel you don't have time to do this stuff but this
keeps you right there, keeps you on the cutting edge and I appreciate
all the time you guys have put into it, it's a pretty amazing tool.")
Large U.S. tomato farmer:http://www.coolfarmtool.org/ForGrowers